Two Coachella Valley cities have decided against funding a Coachella Valley Association of Governments-designed plan for homeless services and are giving most of those funds to a different shelter instead.

Indian Wells and Rancho Mirage say the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission needs help now, because it's absorbed so many people who used to stay at Roy's Desert Resource Center, the Palm Springs homeless shelter that closed in June.

But officials from those cities also say they distrust CVAG.

All the while, service providers say they want to work together, not compete.

"We are not here... for competition, yours versus mine and all this," said Darla Burkett, executive director of the Rescue Mission, at a CVAG Homelessness Committee meeting Wednesday. "There's always going to be a need for an emergency service center and there's always going to be a need for placing people into final destination homes. I hope we all win and I hope we all do well."

Since June 1, the Rescue Mission has seen 276 new clients from west valley cities. Burkett said the mission used to serve 750 dinners per day; this summer, they're up to 900. The influx has increased their operating costs by $65,000 per month. Burkett said they've sought funding from "most" valley cities this year to meet its increased demand.

CVAG asked the valley's nine cities to help fund its program. Coachella, Cathedral City, Palm Desert and Palm Springs agreed, voting to give CVAG $103,000 each. Riverside County and the Desert Healthcare District kicked in more money.

Indian Wells and Rancho Mirage decided to give the bulk of their homeless services money to the Rescue Mission instead of CVAG this year.

Indio and La Quinta have funded the Rescue Mission, not CVAG's homeless services programs, for years.

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Matthew Brown, who works for the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission, kneels down to give water to a dog in Sunrise Park as part of the Rescue Mission's 90 Days of Summer Relief program on Thursday, June 23, 2016.(Photo: Gabby Ferreira/The Desert Sun)

The Rescue Mission operates a 150-bed emergency shelter and has 150 spaces in months-long residential programs that help clients find medical treatment and jobs. Burkett said Wednesday that, of 60 people graduating from CVRM programs this fall, only about 30 have found long-term places to live.

Path of Life offers rental assistance and placement help in homes where people who are becoming homeless might be able to stay long-term. In July and August, they housed 11 people, according to a report distributed at Wednesday's meeting.

Those services would be a big help to people leaving CVRM, Burkett said.

"We're not competitive people. We're heart people. We're really busy and we're on the front lines every day with tough cases," Burkett said Wednesday. "My board, myself and my team, we want no competition. We just want to be able to take these people... we have 30 more (people) to house. I'd love to take those 30 and hand them over to Damien" to assist.

"We certainly don't see ourselves in competition with any other service provider in the region," Path of Life CEO Damien O'Farrell said during the same meeting. "We're very open to collaboration; we feel it's the only way to address this issue,"

In September, Indian Wells' council voted to give $103,000 directly to the Rescue Mission instead of granting CVAG's funding request.

"You can't in good conscience not take care of that problem, or Indio's going to have CVRM in trouble and they're going to have homeless all over their neighborhoods," Indian Wells councilmember Ty Peabody said at Wednesday's meeting. "Path of Life will work, but... they can't solve the problem by themselves."

Teams from the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission are working this summer to bring more homeless to the facility to receive services and shift from a life on the streets.(Photo: J. Omar Ornelas/Desert Sun file)

Politics are at play here, Peabody acknowledged. "I do not have a love for CVAG," he said. He said that after the closure of Roy's and the debate surrounding CV Link — he referenced CVAG's application error that cost the agency a $24 million grant several times — he doesn't trust CVAG to scrutinize spending.

Rancho Mirage had pledged $103,000 to the CVAG-designed program, known as CV Housing First, early in the summer. But at a Sept. 7 meeting, city council instead decided to give $68,000 to the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission. They donated another $35,000 directly to Path of Life Ministries, bypassing CVAG altogether.

There's one more wrinkle. The Desert Healthcare District has pledged to match city funds to CVAG's program. But because of strict geographic limitations on how it spends taxpayer funds, it can only fund the Rescue Mission and other east valley shelters in specific instances.

The healthcare district and CVAG said they could set up a funding mechanism in which cities gave funds to CVAG, the district matched them, and then CVAG gave money to the Rescue Mission in a separate contract. But funding passing through such a process would have to be approved by at least two committees.

Peabody and Rancho Mirage's Charles Townsend said their councils wanted the Rescue Mission to have access to their money right away, so they gave directly to the organization.

Erica Felci, CVAG's governmental programs manager, accused Indian Wells and Rancho Mirage of leaving money on the table by bypassing CVAG and the Desert Healthcare District's matching grants. She wrote in an email, "Essentially, their votes cost the region $206,000 — money that could have been used to address this crisis situation."

On the ground, service providers say they just want to help homeless people effectively.

"It’s a little unfortunate that there’s been this competition" between funding CVAG's program and the Rescue MIssion, said Palm Desert mayor pro tem Sabby Jonathan at Wednesday's meeting. "The two are not mutually exclusive, other than the funding mechanism that has been created."